Mussolini's Moment; Obama, Corporatism and the Oily Recolonization of Libya

Britain and France have sought to bring the U.S.A. to support a no-fly zone over Libya. In some ways this circumstance bears similarities to the 1935 Abyssinian crisis that led eventual to Ethiopian loss of control of the region to an invading Italian fascist army and air force of the Benito Mussolini. Mussolini incidentally was the inventor of the political philosophy of corporatism-very much a close relation to fascism.

The Arab League has also voted to support a no-fly zone. States like Iraq, Bahrain and Qatar are in the Arab League, as are Somalia and Egypt. There are twenty-two member states and they perhaps are not all impartial in their preference that Moamar Kaddafi be removed from power. Khadafy obviously has baggage as a leftist radical support of terrorist causes with loud anti-colonialist idea. China and Russia as former or present neo-communist powers oppose intervention by the west.

This brings me to the curious circumstance of Michelle Obama and her advertising campaign in support of Sam's Club. Sam's Club comprises about 11% of Wal-mart profits annually and is part of the largest commercial retail business on Earth. A conflict of interest strikes me as self-evident when the First Lady promotes the largest business on Earth directly. Wal-mart does have rivals, and it is also one of the leading globalist importers of goods made by cheap second and third world labor to the United States. The advertisements stink of corporatism-the political philosophy where government and corporations act together to rule. Good food quality in Wal-mart ought to be a corporate goal, yet the First Lady should not appear to be embedded with that corporation so far as to partner in advertising. Some Americans believe Wal-Mart is actually detrimental to democracy and free enterprise because of the size.

Corporatism in U.S. economics and government was not created by the Obamas of course. Presidents Clinton and Bush I & II were leaders in degrading U.S. national interests in favor of profit for global corporations. President Bush II of course pursued oil in the Middle East as well as anti-terrorist retribution. President Obama seems like a Bush III administration in many ways. He has even forced a Nixon-Romney health insurance plan upon the nation.

So is U.S. interest in Libya not inevitably shaped to resemble a Mussolini moment of escalating interaction with the Abbysian-Libyan power? Ought Ethiopians return to rule? Can French Special Forces or clandestine legionnaires deliver anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft missiles and oil contracts to rebels without U.S. help? Does the U.S. Government need to be a partnering Uncle Sambo providing military service on borrowed money for corporate profits in vulnerable Middle Eastern nations?

President G.W. Bush and Bill Clinton provided the role modal for America as Uncle Sambo ineptly blundering with foreign military interventions and support for offshoring jobs with burger flipping job growth at home. That's a deficit spending required policy running amuck like a crazed camel in the desert after every oasis of oil that might arise. Better, more intelligent, less Harvard labeling and sophisticating subterfuge federal economic management needs to replace invasion as usual. Thwaping sources of fossil fuels abroad like a Hillbilly market thwaping a box of cereal on a high shelf with a nail through a long stick in order to bring the product within reach of consumers is the Obama-Corporate axis of oil neo-legal procedure.

In Iran the Khomeinists have let their oil production capacity dwindle to just 20% of the Shah era production. When the Khomeinists leave Iran there is a 150 billion dollar investment required to restore the worlds 3rd largest oil and gas fields to full production. Yet oil is bad for the world atmosphere, global warming and is fundamentally a corrupt, anachronistic economic mode. Intelligence is required in government to move beyond fossil fuel economics.

War as a moral way to improve the status of women in the Muslim world is a disingenuous effort by a corporate militarism. Egypt is likely to have a return to semi-military rule or a fundamentalist government as would Libya in the absence of a perennial revolution of military forces. Historically women's rights in middle eastern countries improved most with conservative constitutional monarchy or military strong-men un fortunately. The left supported the revolution against the Shah and succeeded in bringing far worse conditions to Iranian women and men too. The shah had 5000 in jail, the Khomeinists 150,000. The executions by the revolutionary forces continue to the present far exceeding the capital punishments of the constitutional monarch.

There is probably no easy solution for the Libyan crisis. A Kaddafi victory over the rebels would perhaps be followed by a bloody purge. An intervention by the United States or N.A.T.O. would be a reinforcement of the concept of neo-colonialist hegemony of Europe and the U.S.A. over African affairs. Neither is there good logic for an Arab League inability to reinforce the rebels themselves militarily if they choose. It has also been pointed out that a no-fly zone in itself would provide insufficient military protection for rebels. What the rebels seem to need is a borrowed military, and that returns us to the question; should the United States act as the new colonial power in a modern Abyssinia?

The Saudis are rich and have economic budget surplus-they have plenty of weapons to defeat Khaddafi’s forces should they choose. Even Iraq might supply soldiers to reinforce the rebels. Why does the administration believe that the U.S.A. needs to get involved in killing people in any possible revolutionary circumstance in the world. At some point the aloof Harvard clan should realize that the foreign wars to not create domestic full employment in the U.S.A.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abyssinia_Crisis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoare-Laval_Plan British-French Secret protocol of 1935

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_League#Member_states

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12723554 Arab League support for no-fly zone over Libya